ARE Plane in Rock Springs
An American Railway Express Boeing Model 40-B and its ground crew at the original Rock Springs Airport, circa 1930
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A pioneer package express system served Sweetwater County
By railroad and plane
by Sweetwater County Historical Museum
November 15, 2023
SWEETWATER COUNTY, WYOMING - Before UPS and Fed-Ex, there was the American Railway Express, for years the nation’s largest air and ground express delivery service. Deliveries and pickups were made nationwide, including Sweetwater County, reported the Sweetwater County Historical Museum.
In 1917, the United States declared war on Germany and the following year the government took over operation of the railroads and established the American Railway Express. In so doing, the government also expropriated the nation’s seven major express companies carriers, including the American Express Company, Adams & Company, and Wells Fargo. All were merged into a single public corporation, the American Railway Express. (At war’s end, the railroads were returned to their owners, but the express companies were not; they remained the American Railway Express.) In its heyday, the company employed over 45,000 people nationwide, operated over 190,000 miles of railway lines, and possessed a fleet of trucks numbering in the thousands.
In 1927, the company expanded its operations to include an Air Express Division, and air deliveries to Rock Springs began not long afterward. In its archives the museum recently discovered a photograph, circa 1930, of an A.R.E. aircraft and its proud crew at the original Rock Springs Airport, now the site of the White Mountain Golf Course.
The airplane in the photograph is a single-engine biplane, a Boeing Model 40-B. The Model 40 was Boeing’s first passenger aircraft and made its maiden flight on May 20, 1927. The Model 40 was a large transport for its time, with a wingspan of 44 feet, 2 inches, an overall length of a little over 33 feet, and a gross weight of 6,000 pounds. It carried a pilot in an open cockpit, two passengers in a tiny cabin, and up to 1,000 pounds of cargo.
The company became REA Express (Railway Express Agency) in 1960 and operated until 1975, when financial difficulties and competition from the United Parcel Service and the U.S. Postal Service pushed the 57-year-old enterprise into bankruptcy.
The Sweetwater County Historical Museum is located at 3 E. Flaming Gorge Way in Green River. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and there is no charge for admission.
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